Taran Matharu – #TTBF Author Interview 2018

The Outcast (Summoner #4)

The Outcast (Summoner #4)

Taran Matharu

Taran Matharu

You once compared the Summoner series to Harry Potter meets Pokemon. If you could personally collect the students of Hogwarts in the way you collect Pokemon, who would be the prize of your collection?

Assuming I was collecting Harry Potter trading cards, I think it would have to be Dobby! He was perhaps my favourite character after Harry, and everyone will have a Harry card if it’s anything like Pokemon. I reckon Dobby cards might be a bit rarer! Honestly though, if I was to pick a character to be my companion, it would be Dobby too. He’s small enough to move in and you KNOW he’s be a tidy and fastidious housemate!

You first found your audience on Wattpad, starting with one faithful reader and growing that into millions. Do you have any thoughts on the adage about speaking to the audience you want versus the one you have?

I’m thrilled and grateful for my current audience of readers as well as new readers who are just learning about the series. I will say, the messages I treasure most come from the readers that might not be so typical of the YA fanbase, such as from grandparents of teens.

As for the audience I have, it’s quite tricky to know who they are, as an author! There’s no easy census of my readers. Based on my facebook fans, I would say that’s it’s actually quite evenly spread, with no particular outliers – similar numbers of girls and boys, and adults and teenagers alike. Anecdotally I can say that I do often get messages of thanks from parents whose sons didn’t enjoy reading, but were given my books for a birthday or Christmas and have since become voracious readers. I treasure those messages as well.

Our festival slogan is “Read Everything.” What book would you like to see on our “Read Everything” list for 2018?

Ready Player One – it was by far my favourite book last year!

P.S. the film Steven Spielberg made based on the book was a fun watch too!